He sat in silence and waited for Albinus to think it through.
‘Coincidence? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?’
The informant wrinkled his brow.
‘I’m not trying to tell you anything, Senator, I am simply explaining that I knew as little as you did about Brutus’s whereabouts as everyone else in the city, with the apparent exception of the man who leads the Dog Eaters’ assorted thugs and murderers. I’d imagine that Scaurus and Aquila are equally frustrated!’
Albinus opened his mouth to speak again, his expression that of an unhappy man.
‘But …’ The informant neatly forestalled his employer’s next complaint. ‘Given that you pay me for information, I do have news of an event which, I suspect, will bring your former colleagues in the military to the scene like flies on shit, and provide you with the perfect opportunity. You’ll be aware, no doubt, of Senator Tiberius Asinius Pilinius?’
Marcus and the tribune made their way into the city in the early evening with a discreet escort of Cotta’s men, their formal clothing immaculate and their skins ruddy with health after a long session in the barrack’s bathhouse. At the domus’s front gate they parted company with their bodyguards, showing the tokens that Excingus had procured for them to the men controlling admission to the house’s grounds. A heavy-set bruiser with a missing eye looked hard at the metal squares, nodding at them with a knowing look.
‘Two for the inner hall!’
One of his comrades gestured to the house.
‘This way sirs.’
The party was clearly already in full swing, noisy revellers having spilled out onto the wide terrace that fronted the house, and as the bouncer led them round to the left side of building a couple ran across their path and into the garden, the female looking over her shoulder at her partner with a lustful expression. The sounds of laughter and the grunts and moans of sexual activity could be heard from the gloom of the house’s grounds, clearly left unlit to facilitate privacy in these encounters, and Scaurus muttered a quiet aside to Marcus.
‘It’s a clever tactic, to hold parties where anyone can pair off with anyone else in complete privacy, and I’d imagine Pilinius buys up half the city’s most expensive prostitutes for the occasion. Any allegations about whatever it is that he gets up to will instantly be suppressed by the more powerful guests, even if they’re not involved in his perversions, for fear of their own little indiscretions coming to light.’
They entered the house through a side door, finding themselves confronted by another half-dozen doormen. Knowing what to expect, they stood still and allowed the senator’s men to run expert hands through their clothing and across their torsos and limbs.
‘They’re clean. Take ’em through.’
The man who stepped out to escort them into the house was at odds with the muscular and hard-faced doormen, with the look of someone more accustomed to giving orders than taking them, but lacking the physique to impose his will upon others. He took their tokens and examined them both carefully before exchanging a knowing glance with Scaurus, and Marcus guessed that this must be the senator’s duplicitous secretary. Having led them down a narrow corridor, with the sounds of merriment leaking through the doors on their right, he paused at a flight of stairs, speaking to them in an urgent whisper.
‘I wasn’t sure if the tokens I gave to Excingus were going to come back tonight, but it seems that you’re intent on whatever it is that you’ve come for. Are you thieves?’
Scaurus nodded, and Marcus kept his mouth shut as the tribune spun out the story they had agreed with the informant earlier in the day.
‘We know that your master keeps his greatest treasures out of public view, the items that he picks up when he’s working for the emperor?’
The secretary’s eyes widened.
‘You know about …?’
‘We know everything about it, friend. Everything.’
The other man frowned his incomprehension.
‘But if you know everything, then you’ll know that all Senator Pilinius takes from their houses are-’
‘There you are, Belenus, I’ve been looking for you everywhere!’ A bulky, toga-clad figure with a shaved head was coming up the stairs with grunts of exertion. Asinius Pilinius sent me to find you, and to tell you that his guests are ready for the show to begin.’
The secretary bowed respectfully.
‘As you say, sir. I’ll just escort these two gentlemen to the lower level and then-’
‘No need! You go and get it all started, and I’ll take them downstairs!’
Without any choice in the matter, Belenus bowed respectfully, turning away to his duty.
‘Yes, Senator, as you wish.’
He made his exit, leaving the two men to the newcomer. Marcus watched him as he hurried away, returning his fearful backward glance with an impassive stare. Climbing the remaining stairs, the newcomer stuck out a hand, clasping both men in turn with a firm if slightly moist grip.
‘Now, gentlemen, on behalf of Asinius Pilinius, welcome to this entertaining little event! I’m Titus Pomponius Avenus, one of his closest friends and, I should add, one of the original members of this select group of men. You’re new to this, I presume? I don’t recognise your faces from any of the previous times we’ve gathered to celebrate!’
Scaurus inclined his head with just the right degree of respect.
‘Indeed, Senator, this is the first time that we’ve been invited to join in the fun.’ Avenus raised an eyebrow and, knowing that any failure to convince the man as to their bona fides might lead to suspicions that would unravel their cover story, the tribune took on a confiding look. ‘In truth, Senator Pilinius took pity on the pair of us when I expressed an interest in his events, having heard of them from a mutual friend. He issued us both with an invitation, accompanied by clear instructions to keep ourselves to ourselves on this occasion.’
Avenus nodded knowingly.
‘And that’s sagacious advice, I’d say. He won’t want you bothering his more distinguished guests, not until you’ve proven yourselves as worthy members of our rather exclusive group. What is it that you both do with yourselves?’
Scaurus smiled modestly, bowing again.
‘Allow me to introduce myself and my colleague. I’m Gaius Rutilius Scaurus, and this is Marcus Tribulus Corvus. We both have the honour to serve the empire as legion tribunes. Having recently returned to Rome from Britannia, where shows such as the one the Senator is hosting tonight are by no means a rarity, I was musing to him only last week how much I missed a little, shall we say, unusual entertainment?’
The stout patrician guffawed.
‘So you’re not such new boys to our little games after all! I’ll wager that you get a good deal more variety than we do though, what with all those exotic barbarian women, eh?’ Marcus grinned, showing his teeth in an expression that was perilously close to becoming a snarl, but the other man was too far gone in his own fantasies to notice such a subtlety. ‘I’m not sure that we’ve got anything quite as exciting as the entertainment you’ll have seen in Britannia, but tonight’s entertainment promises to be quite special. The Senator procured a large number of performers only a week or so ago, enough for everyone here to participate. And since I’m a staunch supporter of the army, I feel it my duty to take you both under my wing, so to speak. Tonight, gentlemen, you will be my companions. Come along then!’
He turned and made his way back down the stairs with the two men following behind, and after twenty or so steps, led them into a large, torchlit room.
‘Quite an ingenious little play room, wouldn’t you say? There’s no way into it other than the staircase we just came down and a door that leads into the grounds at the rear of the house, and the wall between this and the rest of the house is so thick that I doubt you could hear a trumpeter on the other side if he were blowing fit to burst!’